First Day of April

Article 01 - April 2, 2016

Since today is 4/1, let’s talk about April Fool’s Day.

Unfortunately, I have to head to class tomorrow, but usually it’s on my Spring break, so I don’t normally participate in the festivities. But it’s still fun to talk about 4/1.

The origin of April Fool’s Day, was of course, partially set off by the French. Earlier in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII had a calendar named after him (the Gregorian calendar) replace the Julian calendar. Among the changes in gatekeeping was the arrangement to celebrate the New Year’s on January 1st instead of the first day in April as previously ordained by the Julian calendar. France adopted the new calendar system that same year.

Reformists and proponents of the new system pranked the traditionalists who celebrated the New Year on April 1. And that’s how it came to be.

And since then there were many more people around the world trying to report on fake events, invite others to non-existent events, and launch products that are not even invented.

Or is it?

Such an assumption led to one of the more infamous launches of a product in history.

Gmail launched on this day twelve years ago. The tale bounced and resonated that at the time, the leading email client, Hotmail, gave its users a maximum of 4 MB of space.

Yes. 4 MB. That’s the space enough to store only four photographs. That’s all you get.

So when the search engine company that has been gaining traction announces an email service that allows you up to 1 GB (that’s more than 250x the size that Hotmail is willing to gift you), and announced this very product on the day most hoax products are also unveiled— you will be hard-pressed to find a believer.

Google delivered. On April 1, 2004, it launched as a semi-closed beta, and now it ballooned to over a billion users.

Yet companies like to have some genuine fun.

Just today Samsung teased the Samsung Galaxy S8, less than a month after they revealed the S7. And they failed to convince almost anyone because almost every major tech outlet outed it as a prank. Fail. 

Google themselves tried their hand this year as well. A new button next to the original Send button allows users to essentially “Mic Drop” their mates. A GIF of a mic being dropped will be enclosed alongside your bidding message, while also forever banishing the thread for it to be never seen again.

It’s not like the original Send button is missing. But clumsy workers who clicked that Send button while firing a last-minute email requesting an extension will probably have to starve their wallets for the next month or two.

But hey. Google at least unveiled another invention that’s worth cheering for, today.